My entire life my dad has tried to be the 90s sitcom dad. And not the one you wanted to be your dad. No the one who basically makes it clear he hates being married and having children and is constantly insulting his family under the guise of “jokes”. Doesn’t help around the house but complains all the time about how dirty the house is. Never wants to spend time with his kids but expects them to be at his beck and call. Whines if you ask him any question then gets mad when you don’t ask his opinion. You get the idea. He wasn’t always a bad dad but his desperate attempts to be “funny” left few good memories that aren’t paired with hurt feelings or tears.

I have no idea why mom has put up with this for years but I’ve stopped trying to understand. She sometimes stands up to him but most often she lets him keep going then in private gets upset.

Well a couple days ago my dad started his bit again. He was joking about (insulting) my mom and how she talks and tells stories. She’s trying to tell a story about something that happened at work and he keeps interrupting her to go “oh my god get to your point already”, “ughhhhh why do you have to include every little detail no one cares”, “can you hurry it up you’re wasting valuable oxygen”, “what do women and small dogs have in common? They’re yappy and can’t shut up”, etc.

I could see it was hurting my mom’s feelings. I guess I was just sick of it after years of watching him do this while saying he’s just joking. “At least when mom talks people are actually interested unlike you where they just want your stupid wannabe comedy bit to be over so they can get back to their lives.” My dad went quiet and didn’t say anything for the rest of the night. He’s refused to speak to me the last couple days and according to my mom his feelings are hurt when I insulted him. She didn’t tell me to apologize but did tell me maybe next time I should be gentler.

Now I’m confused on whether I should have said anything at all. I hate seeing him insult and belittle my mom (my whole family really) but I’m wondering if I should have just kept quiet. AITAH?